Thursday, May 11, 2006

If there were duplicated WLs

I wonder what it would be like if somehow, I simultaneously duplicated 10 copies of myself in some weird experiment. Each copy would be identical in every way to the original.

What would I say ? Could I even say "Hi Wei Liangs" ? Since all the Wei Liang's are identical, won't they (we?) all behave and act in the same fashion, at the same time? The room might not hold meaningful conversation, only a simultaneous jumble of noise.

On the other hand, because each WL is identical only at point of duplication, tiny differences from that point on will cause them to act differently. Tiny differences are inevitable because all the WL's cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Hence they cannot experience the same experiences, and will therefore diverge in their behaviour. For example, WL1 may say "Hi WLs" after a minute because he(I?) was distracted by the window he was standing beside, while WL2 may say "Ouch!" because he stepped on a nail.

The greatest problem caused by the duplication is that every WL would think that he was the original copy (which actually is an oxymoron). Each would have the memory of pressing the "DUPLICATE ME" button. Since each WL is identical, there would be no way of determining the original unless there was some prior evidence (like the CCTV. Which is another issue altogether) .

But what if all the prior evidence was destroyed ! Oh no !

Everyone should take this to be a serious warning to not produce a self-duplicating device !